By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

 

SILSBEE — The Silsbee Tigers beat the Bridge City Cardinals 40-15 in Silsbee Friday night in an offensive-heavy game in District 10-4A Division I action.

The Tigers (3-4, 2-1) ended with 274 rushing yards with seven separate running backs contributing to the offense as they finished with 311 yards.

The Tigers defense is what really won the game holding the Cardinals (1-5, 1-2) scoreless in the second half to ensure the win at home.

Tiger running back Christopher Martin zipped for 131 yards on 19 carries and fellow back Draylyn Taylor had 86 yards on 16 totes.

The Tigers added to the Cardinals’ misery as Class 4A 100 and 200-meter state champion Kalon Barnes brough back two punt returns for scores.

The Cardinals finished with 266 yards on the night, 179 on the ground and 87 in the air.

Marcus Abrego paced the Cardinal ground game with 98 yards while Roman Haymon finished with 53. Quarterback Caleb DuBois completed two passes for 87, including a 68-yard touchdown pass to back Logan Hamm.

Each team entered this game wanting to secure a higher seed in the district. This game held a lot of possibilities in the outcome for the playoff picture and the race is far from over as Little Cypress-Mauriceville (3-3, 2-1) fell to Huffman (3-3, 1-2) 27-20 in overtime.

The Tigers’ Barnes picks up a bouncing punt return for a long 70-yard touchdown. This came after Bridge City’s first series was stopped by the Tigers’ defense in three –and-out fashion.

The Cardinals’ offense responded though, when DuBois completed a medium out pass to Hamm. After the catch Hamm broke a tackle and took off for a long 68-yard run for the score. The other Hamm brother, Ethan Hamm, ran in the two -point conversion to make it 8-7 Bridge City in the first quarter.

Abrego then had the run of his life from the Cardinal 2, going the distance for the full 98- yard touchdown. Zeke Mendez put the PAT through and the Cardinals were up 15-7 with two minutes left in the first quarter.

Silsbee would piece together the first successful drive that didn’t last one play this game and scored with a Drayln Taylor nine yard touchdown run. The Tigers’ offense finally picked itself up with it’s running game from multiple running backs. They failed at the two point conversion and the Cardinals held the lead, 15-13 with 9:12 in the half left.

The next drive the Cardinals were forced to punt again, and Barnes again returned it for a touchdown from 55 yards out. The Tigers went for two again, but failed again making the score 19-15 with 7:36 in the half left.

Martin was the workhouse out of the running back position for the Tigers. With 79 yard on the night already with two minutes left in the second quarter, he was able to punch in a touchdown from 13 yards out. The extra-point kick was good as the Tigers snagged a 26-15 advantage.

Silsbee gets first possession of the second half and took full advantage of it, scoring on that very drive. Running back Martin hauled the ball across the end zone for a eight-yard score to cap it as the Tigers went up 33-15 with 7:23 left in the third quarter.

The Tigers didn’t take their foot off the pedal, scoring again to pad their lead. Taylor and Martin took the haul on the march drive as Martin finished it, punching it in from nine yards out to make it 40-15 with 10:49 left in the fourth quarter.

The Cardinals will look to bounce back next week when they visit Navasota. The Tigers will take on Huffman.

 

 

Silsbee 40,

Bridge City 15

 

BC                              SLB

First downs         6                                20

Rushes-yards     30-179                46-274

Passing                 87                            37

Comp-Att-Int     2-10-0                                    4-8-0

Fumbles-Lost       0-0                         2-0

Penalties-yards   2-16                     3-30

 

Individual Statistics

Rushing: BC Rylan Ply 7-14, Marcus Abrego 5-98, Roman Haymon 4-53, Logan Hamm 5-8, Caleb Dubois 4-(-)14, Justyn Romero 1-7; SLB Drayln Taylor 16-86, Christopher Martin 19-131, Kalon Barnes 1-(-12), Tre’Darius Lowe 4-36, Dillon Tarver 2-9, Jacob Collins 2-15, Javon Hill 4-9

Passing: BC Caleb Dubois 2-10-0 87; SLB Jacob Collins 4-8-0 37

Receiving: BC Logan Hamm 1-68, Rylan Ply 1-19; SLB Kalon Barnes 2-11, Dillion Tarver 1-15, Tre’darius Lowe 1-11

 

1st                             2nd                           3rd                            4th                            Final

BC                              8                                 7                                 0                                 0                                 15

SLB                           7                                 19                              7                                 7                                 40